438 N St NW- occupied

The old link for 438 N St is no longer active. Walking by 438 N St NW, the place looks fine.
The property was last sold 2013 to an owner claiming the homestead deduction. According to the DC PIVS permits were issued in 2010 and 2011 for work done, which I'll gather was the work that took the property from vacant to occupied.
So moving on, nothing to see here folks.

1251 4th St NW

 Here is a story of how to avoid the vacant tax rate. There are two little tricks to buy time. One is to get a permit to do work on the vacant property. The property won't be taxed at the higher rate while significant work is being done. To the left is a permit for repairs of the Hoagie House (see image above). Windows were put in, but not much more. There is a long story of the ever vacant Hoagie House and the blighted tax rate has been a part of that story. The permit sports the name of a person who has been involved with other projects that have taken far longer than normal to get off the ground, such as the North Capitol firehouse. The permit is also set to expire in a few days, which brings us to the second way to avoid the vacant tax rate.
Putting a vacant and blighted property on the market is the second method that holds off the vacant tax rate. A few days ago 1251 4th St NW, was put on the market for $2.4 million dollars. This includes lot 0858 and lot 0873 and it is a commercial property. According to whomever is selling this they are awaiting zoning approval to divide into 3 lots and they say the structure has a certificate of occupancy for four units. Any buyer should verify that last statement, as DCRA's online permit application didn't show any certificates of occupancy. Other headache for any potential buyer is this property is that it is in an historic district. Looking at DCRA's PIVS, it appears that the property was found to be vacant, but is being taxed at the commercial rate.

454 N St NW

454 N St NW, a photo by In Shaw on Flickr.

Sometimes DC government can help with the problem. Sometimes DC government is the problem.
According to the DC tax database, the blighted property 454 N St NW, is owned by the District of Columbia, Suite 307. As you may hazard a guess, it pays no taxes so there is no point of having it taxed at the vacant rate.
The thing with these DC owned properties is eventually (10-20 years eventually) they do make their way back to the tax rolls as an occupied property, but not any time soon. In the meantime, neighboring properties suffer.

Follow-up: 1002 M St NW

This blog was started sometime back in 2007 by Ed. I inherited it in 2010 and so far have done very little since then. There are some links and posts regarding some properties that were blights and eyesores at one point in history, that are now a part of the fabric of the neighborhood. In the right column there are addresses that I'll take a quick look-see to discover if those properties have joined the ranks of the normal properties or remain blights of the street.

Today I looked at 1002 M St., NW. It was featured by Ed May 23, 2007. It was a Class 3 then later Class 1, vacant property in 2007. Today it is a set of 4 condo units with 3 of those owners receiving the homestead deduction. What this means is this former vacant property has become a home to about four households, who in addition to paying property tax add to the income tax rolls as well.

According to Redfin, the first unit was listed in July and sold in August 2012 for $529,999. Looking at the other units, they were sold either in July or September in 2012 between $449.9K and $630K. The building was converted to condos in 2011, which I'll guess the building was renovated in 2011-2012 and made available for sale.

This is what I hope can happen to many units featured here. That the vacant rate taxes or other incentives will get owners of vacant properties get inspired to make them occupied dwellings once again. So with this I remove "1002 M St, NW" from the column and add the tag 'occupied' to this address.

Mount Vernon Square Lisitings of Vacant Housing

This has been around since last month and it is reflective of citizens being active, collecting information and empowering themselves with tools that make the city accountable. This being the Mount Vernon Square Vacant Property Survey. You can see the actual survey here. Some listing have photographs and there is information about the owner and if there are any permits out for it.